PostgreSQL 18 for Developers (Paperback)

Developing intelligent applications that integrate AI, analytics, and transactional capabilities using the latest release of the world's most popular open-source database

Key Features

• Practical examples demonstrating how to use PostgreSQL to develop intelligent applications
• Best practices for developers of intelligent data management applications
• Includes the latest PostgreSQL 18 features for AI, analytics, and transactions.

Book Description

In today’s data-first world, businesses need applications that blend transactions, analytics, and AI to power real-time insights at scale. Mastering PostgreSQL 18 for AI-Powered Enterprise Apps is your essential guide to building intelligent, high-performance systems with the latest features of PostgreSQL 18.

Through hands-on examples and expert guidance, you’ll learn to design architectures that unite OLTP and OLAP, embed AI directly into apps, and optimize for speed, scalability, and reliability. Discover how to apply cutting-edge PostgreSQL tools for real-time decisions, predictive analytics, and automation. Go beyond basics with advanced strategies trusted by industry leaders. Whether you’re building data-rich applications, internal analytics platforms, or AI-driven services, this book equips you with the patterns and insights to deliver enterprise-grade innovation.

Ideal for developers, architects, and tech leads driving digital transformation, this book empowers you to lead the future of intelligent applications. Harness the power of PostgreSQL 18—and unlock the full potential of your data.

What you will learn

• How to leverage PostgreSQL 18 for building intelligent data-driven applications for the modern enterprise
• Data management principles and best practices for managing transactions, analytics, and AI use cases
• How to utilize PostgreSQL capabilities to address architectural challenges and attain optimal performance for each use case
• Methods for utilizing the latest PostgreSQL innovation to create integrated data management applications
• Guidelines on when to use PostgreSQL and when to opt for specialized data management solutions

Who this book is for

This book is for backend developers, data engineers, database engineers, and solution architects who want to build modern applications using PostgreSQL as a unified platform for transactions, analytics, and AI. It is intended for readers with a basic understanding of SQL and relational databases who want to learn how to design high-performance transactional systems, implement analytical workloads, and integrate AI capabilities such as vector search and LLM-based applications within Postgres.

Table of Contents

1. Transactional, Analytical, and AI Business Systems and Their Database Requirements
2. The Evolution of Postgres
3. A Sample E-Commerce Application
4. Database Requirements for High-Volume Transactional Applications
5. Transactions, ACID Compliance, and Data Normalization
6. Functions and Stored Procedures
7. Designing for High Transaction Volumes and Writing Efficient Transactional Code
8. Understanding and Monitoring Transactional Application Performance
9. Database Requirements for Analytical Use Cases
10. The Analytics Data Model
11. Feeding the PostgreSQL Data Warehouse
12. Transforming the Data for Analytics
13. PostgreSQL's Analytics Functions
14. Analyzing Text Documents in PostgreSQL
15. Database Requirements for Artificial Intelligence Use Cases
16. Vectors and Indexing for AI with pgvector
17. Multi-Modal Reasoning: Combining AI Vectors with Standard SQL

(N.B. Please use the Read Sample option to see further chapters)

Vibhor Kumar, Global VP at EDB, is a pioneering data tech leader. He manages a global team of engineers, optimizing clients' Postgres databases for peak performance and scalability. He advises Fortune 500 clients, including many Financial Institutes, in innovating and transforming their data platforms. His past experience spans IBM, BMC Software, and CMC Ltd. He holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Lucknow and a Master's from the Army Institute of Management. As a certified expert in numerous technologies, he often shares his insights on DevOps, cloud, and database optimization through blogging and speaking at events.

Marc Linster holds a Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat) from the University of Kaiserslautern. Marc is the former CTO and Chief Customer Officer of EnterpriseDB (EDB), one of the major contributors to Postgres. At EDB, Marc focused on helping large-scale users understand the art of the possible with Postgres. Marc has led EDB's product development and services teams for many years, helping customers deploy Postgres at scale and innovate with Postgres. For the last thirteen years, he has been working with Fortune 500 companies to migrate their roadmaps from proprietary software to open-source Postgres. He has given numerous talks at Postgres conferences around the world and discussed Postgres in dozens of webinars.